Mental Health Charter gathers momentum with London event

Published: 31 August 2014

There is growing support for SWAN's Mental Health Charter (please see attachments below), which was launched at this year's SWAN National Conference in Durham this April, with a London event in November. A list of around 300 signatories to the charter follows this article. To add your name or your organisation's name to this list please email jeremy.weinstein [at] tiscali.co.uk

There is a deep and continuing crisis in mental health services: austerity driven cuts in welfare, oppressive government benefits ‘reforms’, the growing gap between the richest and poorest in society. Practitioners and service users alike struggle with high caseloads, reduced resources and a target culture underpinned by market ideology and privatisation. The SWAN Mental Health charter calls for an end to the cuts and proposes radical alternatives.

After successful conferences about the charter in Liverpool, Bristol and Oxford earlier this year, an event entitled 'The Crisis in Mental Health Services' will be held in London on Saturday 8th November this year. A poster for the London event is attached - plese circulate this widely. It wil feature speakers including Peter Beresford (Professor of Social Policy and Chair of Shaping Our Lives), June Sadd (Survivor Trainer and Researcher), and Disabled People Against Cuts, among others. It will take place at the John Barnes Library, N7 0JN; the nearest tube station is Caledonian Road.